Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey developed Bitchat, an app that sends messages over Bluetooth, without the need for wifi or cellular signals.
In a post on X (formerly Twitter), he described how, as users move, their phones form local Bluetooth clusters and pass messages from one device to another. Some “bridge” devices help link overlapping clusters, making the network more expansive. The app is useful for situations like chatting with friends at a crowded music festival, where cellular service can be congested or unstable.
Jack Dorsey said Bitchat can send messages to devices 300 meters away. This is a remarkable step forward because the technical limitations of Bluetooth mean that this type of connection usually only works within a range of 100 meters. Before Bitchat, two encrypted Bluetooth messaging apps, FireChat and Bridgefy, were used during protests in 2014 and 2022.
Bitchat allows group chats, which can be named with hashtags and password-protected. The app can also forward messages to offline users. Future versions are expected to support Wi-Fi Direct to increase the speed and size of the network.
Unlike mainstream messaging platforms like WhatsApp and Messenger, which are owned, developed, and rely on personal data, Bitchat operates entirely peer-to-peer, with no accounts, no identifying information like email or phone number, and no data collection.
Bitchat allows for temporary encryption of communications between nearby devices. Messages are stored only on the device, disappear by default, and are not transmitted to a centralized infrastructure. This reflects Dorsey’s efforts to protect user privacy and resist censorship. He has long been an advocate for decentralized communication platforms, such as the social network Bluesky.
Bitchat’s beta version on the app testing service TestFlight has 10,000 users. Dorsey said the app is being evaluated for a wider release.
(TechCrunch, CNBC, Quartz)